Intro by Dominga Martin, Q&A with Vanessa Turner

When I read the novel, Push (by Sapphire) several years ago, it was a challenge for me.  Challenging because we know that this type of abuse exists in the world;   challenging because it is written as a young woman (Precious), without a proper education, would speak.  She spoke from the depths of a heart that had been ripped out because of abuse and lack of love in her life.   She spoke her truth as she knew it and it was told to her. 

The first chapter, opening line reads like this: “I was left back when I was twelve because I had a baby for my fahver.  That was 1983.  I was out of school for a year.  This gonna be my second baby.  My daughter got down sinder.  She’s retarded…”

Now provocative, filmmaker Lee Daniels (the man behind Halle Berry’s Oscar for Monster’s Ball) brings this world to the screen.  Known for his raw, “in your face” approach of filmmaking he brings this novel to life and holds no punches. 

This time around he’s coming with the big guns (Backed by Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey) and they are pushing this film to the finish.

Journalist Vanessa Turner sits down with Lee Daniels to hear his-story of how Push (now Precious) tugged at his heart strings.

Crème: How close did you stick to the novel Push? Did you take much artistic license?
 
Lee Daniels: The book is X-rated, if I were to show the book on screen. The only difference that we, Jeffrey Fletcher, brilliant screenwriter, and I took, the only liberty we took was to jump into fantasy where the book does not. And so, not only for a rating but for the audience to breathe through humor. I found that through laughter the pain is more bearable.

Crème: I was able to identify with some of the nuances.

Lee Daniels: Why is that?  People tell me often that they haven’t had the childhood yet they can identify. I’m just curious. I’m gonna flip the question.

Crème: Because you make it laughable. You took out some of the seriousness of it. The intensity of it.  Would you have been drawn to the movie had you not had that personal connection?

Lee Daniels:  It’s a collaborative thought process. The pig’s feet was one of the reasons why, you know.  Like, I love pig’s feet even though I’m not supposed to eat them, you know. The scent of the house. So I don’t know if it was necessarily the abuse. Certainly, yes of course.  But I think it was a collective experience. And the nuances of the book that struck me. And having relatives that can’t read. Having understood running. We were on welfare at a time when my Dad died. I remember Ms. Shirley, whatever her name was. “Ms. Shirley is comin’?” and my Mom would say “Why didn’t you tell me that bitch was coming? Hurry up! Hide this!?  Hide this! Do this!” And we were just running to hide things from her. There were moments like that, that I understood, DNA wise. The abuse yea. I think that is a given. Always feeling different. Never feeling a part. Or normal. And I think many of us (ask) who is normal? What defines normalcy? And I think that that is the universal theme of the film.

Crème: What did you do as a director to prepare your actors?

Lee Daniels: I wish I could take credit to being this profound filmmaker. My rehearsal process is not your ordinary one….They know the script.  Some were learning the book. The rehearsal process is really selfishly about me. Like this is who I am. These are my fears. These are my hopes.  These are my dreams. These are my paranoia’s. I rip myself open. I’m an open book. This is my past life with drugs. This is how I embarrass myself with my children. This is how I cry. This is what makes me laugh. And so, that in a very subliminal way affects the actors after two and three days of hearing me talk to break down and start talking about themselves. So, by the time I yell action we’re not on the same paragraph, we’re not on the same sentence or word. We’re on the same syllable. Because they know what’s in my head. And they’re able to deliver whatever it is that I want.

I’m grunting. And they will tell, you my actors. Uh-uh, uh-huh? And they go, “uh-huh-uh-urh.” So it really is a primal hand gesture, grunting, speaking in tongue directing experience. It’s like going to a Baptist church.

Crème: What was the atmosphere like on set taping difficult rape and abuse scenes?

Lee Daniels: We were laughing. We were laughing at the ludacrousy of it all. Not the end scene because I don’t know if we could’ve continued on past that last scene. But we do, because we shot Precious walking with her head up. That was the last shot of the film and the last scene that we shot.

Mo’Nique is a comedienne. So they view things from a different perspective than an ordinary actor does. They have a third eye and they see things in a very twisted sort of way. You sometimes find yourself laughing at things you really shouldn’t be laughing at.
So Mo’Nique is at the bottom of the stairs, Precious is at the top of the stairs and “action” and she says, “You ain't never been nothing. You ain’t shit and you ain’t never been shit. I should’ve aborted your ass.’ And she keeps going on. And by take four, you’re laughing. I’m laughing. I’m like, ‘Oh my God this is not happening. Stop!’ And then Precious is at the top of the stairs, she’s giggling. And Mo’Nique is laughing at the absurdity of it all. And we are laughing. Literally, some of the best stuff in the film I had to cut because Mo’Nique broke out in laughter so I would have to cut to Precious. Then I would have to cut back on [Precious] because she was laughing.

Crème: You would never know it in the movie.

Lee Daniels:  Right. Oh, yeah.  Thanks to my brilliant [I can’t take credit for that], my brilliant editor Joe Platz, who is a genius. That scene- the outtakes, which I will put on the DVD, gladly; then I won’t be taken so seriously anymore, and I’ll be exposed. You’ll see that we laughed throughout the taping.

Mo’Nique says, “you bitch.” And I said ‘no, we’ll call it fat bitch.’ And she was like “Lee!” So I was like ‘no, we’ll call you fat Black bitch.’ Oh God. Every time we would go further and further.

Every time we would go further. But the end scene—I said ‘do not cry. I need you to be troopers. Go through this and be adult.’ But it was so painful that when I started crying, Mariah and Mo’Nique and Gabby started crying. And I couldn’t yell cut because it was God in the house taking over. It was a bizarre experience. Surreal. I will never forget that moment. That moment was similar to Halle’s gumball experience. I said Marc, (Marc Forster, Director, Monster’s Ball) cu to the chase. The gumball. I felt like I was living again. We’re here again.

Check back next week for Part II of this Amazing interview.  Lee Daniels gives us insight on why it was important to him to adapt the Novel Push into a film, getting Precious made and the skinny on Mo’Nique…

Precious opens in select theaters on November 6th.  For more info: www.weareallprecious.com

Read part 2 of this story here.

Interview with Gabourey Sidibe.